"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Fox cuts away from Obama-GOP Q&A but airs GOP "response" in its entiretyDuring President Obama's question and answer session with Republican members of Congress at the GOP House Issues Conference, Fox News Channel was the only cable news network to cut away and not show the exchange in its entirety. However, Fox News subsequently aired all of the "Republican response" press conference held by House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) after the question and answer session with Obama. Read More

"Bolshevik plot": Right-wing media declare Obama a radical who threatens AmericaUrging that "we've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality," President Obama stated during his January 29 question and answer session with House Republicans that "if you were to listen to the debate" over health care reform "you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot." Throughout Obama's administration thus far, conservative media have embraced such rhetoric, routinely attacking Obama's agenda as socialist, communist or fascist and telling audiences that Obama and health care reform are a threat to America itself. Read More

Fox News' top shows largely ignore Obama-GOP eventFollowing President Obama's address and question and answer session with Republican members of Congress at the GOP House Issues Conference, Fox News' three top-rated programs spent a combined total of four minutes and five seconds covering the event during the January 29 broadcasts. The event was widely praised across the political spectrum, and Marc Ambinder wrote that prominent Republicans "found their arguments simply demolished by the president." Read More

President Obama held a candid, face-to-face conversation with House Republicans today at their annual retreat in Baltimore. After Obama gave his remarks, he had to answer tough questions from Republican lawmakers about health care, the budget, taxes, and other issues. Although the riveting exchange lasted over an hour, both CNN and MSNBC aired the entire event.

However, at 1:11 p.m. ET — when there was still 20 minutes left to go — Fox News decided to cut away and begin its commentary. Anchor Trace Gallagher’s immediate reaction was that Obama was being too “combative” and “lecturing” — like he was at his State of the Union address. Correspondent Bret Baier agreed, saying there was “a little bit of that,” but conceded that there was a “decent…give-and-take on the specifics.” Watch it:

Unsurprisingly, Fox is echoing a Republican talking point. Several Republicans complained that Obama was lecturing them in his State of the Union speech:

– “I felt like he was admonishing Congress and certainly lecturing Republicans, accusing us of being an obstructionist party, when what it is we’re about is trying to focus on the issue, which is control the spending and let’s go about creating an environment for jobs.” — House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

– “The address was ‘more of a lecture, I thought, in tone,’ [Cornyn] said, but Obama ‘gives a great speech.’” — Rep. John Cornyn (R-TX)

– “In a word, ‘lecture’ [is what I thought of Obama's State of the Union speech]. I think there was quite a bit of lecturing, not leading in that, as opposed to Governor McDonnell’s follow-up comments, quite inspiring his connection with the people. He absolutely gets it, he understands government’s appropriate role.” — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, 1/27/10, Fox News.....................

Friday, January 29, 2010

Quick Fact: Palin falsely suggested health reform would increase deficit, denied Obama cut taxes Fox News contributor Sarah Palin falsely suggested in a January 28 Facebook post that Democrats' health care reform plans would increase the deficit and that President Obama has not cut taxes. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the health care reform bills passed by both the House and Senate would reduce federal deficits through 2019 and beyond, and the recovery act signed into law by Obama included $288 billion in tax relief. Read More

Attacking Obama's speech, Lowry misleads on stimulus estimates, Supreme Court caseNew York Post columnist Rich Lowry claimed that President Obama's 2 million job estimate of the impact of the recovery act is "from an outfit that has every incentive to make the numbers look as cheery as possible," when in fact that estimate falls within the range given by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Lowry also purported to correct Obama's statement about the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC, but four Supreme Court justices and other legal experts have said the impact of the ruling is uncertain. Read More

WSJ editorial demands Obama "get his facts right" in his Supreme Court criticism A January 29 Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that President Obama's remark during the State of the Union address about how he believed the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC could "open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections" is "false." But, in fact, Obama's comments echo what four of the Supreme Court justices wrote in their opinion -- that the decision "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans" to make certain election-related expenditures. Read More

Quick Fact: George Will claimed EFCA would "abolish workers' rights to secret ballots" George Will asserted in a Washington Post column that "organized labor's 'card check' legislation" would "abolish workers' rights to secret ballots in unionization elections." In fact, currently it is employers, not workers, who have the right to demand a secret ballot; the Employee Free Choice Act would strip employers of that right; employees would be able to utilize the "secret ballot" election process. Read More

Media conservatives falsely claim Obama's Supreme Court criticism was "unprecedented" Right-wing media are attacking President Obama for his criticism of the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC during the State of the Union, calling it "unprecedented" and accusing the president of "intimidation." In fact, Obama's comments were not "unprecedented"; Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have previously used the State of the Union to criticize judicial actions, including those of the Supreme Court. Read More

Fox Nation touts "hero" labeling of Obama photos, ignores that it's a photographic termThe Fox Nation highlighted a Mediaite post claiming that "the individual responsible for the naming convention of the presidential imagery on the official White House website has literally 'given' hero status to the photos" of President Obama because the file names of "all the Presidential images" begin with "hero_." But Fox Nation did not mention that the Mediaite post was later updated to note that "hero" is photographic terminology for "the image selected for final use. i.e. typically the best image from the selection" -- as conservative bloggers pointed out when the issue was raised in March 2009. Read More

Beck "don't know much about history"... or economicsOn January 28, Fox News host Glenn Beck purported to explain the origins of the financial crisis but instead made several false claims. Beck misinformed his viewers on the difference between institutions that provide student loans and those that purchase existing home loans, his own previous comments about the financial bailouts, and the Federal Reserve's regulatory role. Read More

Conservative media link bin Laden's remarks about climate change to progressives, DemocratsNumerous conservative media figures responded to Osama bin Laden's reported comments blaming the United States and other industrialized nations for global warming by linking bin Laden with progressives and Democrats. Fox example, Rush Limbaugh likened bin Laden's remarks to "those of the average, run-of-the-mill leftist, like Obama or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi or the entire Democrat Party," and Glenn Beck stated that bin Laden was "running to [progressives'] defense." Read More

President Obama appeared before the House GOP retreat in Baltimore today to offer a defense of his agenda while making good on his State of the Union promise to welcome ideas from the opposition party. In his introduction, Obama gave a strong defense of the stimulus package — which most economists agree has worked — saying, “there’s not a single person in here” would who would not be “going home to more laid off teachers,” firefighters, and police officers. Obama also chided Republicans for taking credit for the benefits while also bashing it:

And then the last portion of it was infrastructure, which as I’ve said, a lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against. Now I say all this not to re-litigate past, but it’s simply to state that the component parts of the stimulus are consistent with what many of you say are important things to do — rebuilding our infrastructure, tax cuts for families and businesses, and making sure that we were providing states and individuals some support when the roof was caving in.

Watch it:

Every single House Republican voted against the stimulus package, but as ThinkProgress has documented, many have gone on to tout the benefits it is having in their respective districts. For instance, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) sent multiple press releases publicizing “imperative” stimulus funds awarded to his state, without mentioning where the money had come from. In December, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) called the stimulus a “large-scale failure,” only to praise a stimulus-funded program as “critical” a few weeks later. Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) sent two press releases out on December 16th — one saying the stimulus had “failed” and the other hailing $1,044,140 in stimulus money for the Carroll County school system.

House Republicans were fired up and ready to go for their conversation with President Obama at their annual retreat today. According to the New York Times, members of the conservative Republican House Conference said they were “itching to quiz the president and present their policy ideas rather than listen to another lofty presidential address.” Although such sessions generally occur behind closed doors, Republicans agreed to open it up after the White House said it was willing to do so. However, after Obama’s strong performance, some Republicans are now regretting that decision. As Luke Russert reported on MSNBC:

RUSSERT: Tom Cole — former head of the NRCC, congressman from Oklahoma — said, “He scored many points. He did really well.” Barack Obama, for an hour and a half, was able to refute every single Republican talking point used against him on the major issues of the day. In essence, it was almost like a debate where he was front and center for the majority of it. … One Republican said to me, off the record, behind closed doors: “It was a mistake that we allowed the cameras to roll like that. We should not have done that.”

Watch it:

“Accepting the invitation to speak at the House GOP retreat may turn out to be the smartest decision the White House has made in months,” writes the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder. “Debating a law professor is kind of foolish — the Republican House Caucus has managed to turn Obama’s weakness — his penchant for nuance — into a strength. Plenty of Republicans asked good and probing questions, but Mike Pence, among others, found their arguments simply demolished by the president.”

This weekend, Republican leaders will convene at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore to plot strategy, socialize, and plan both legislative and campaign themes for the year. Yesterday morning, ThinkProgress caught up with House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who confirmed that the Congressional Institute — a nonprofit run by Republican corporate lobbyists — is sponsoring the retreat. Normally, such lobbyist-sponsored soirées would be illegal under House ethics rules. But by forming an ostensibly nonpartisan educational front called the Congressional Institute, lobbyists are able to skirt any such oversight. However, Boehner told ThinkProgress that he did not know if any lobbyists would be present at the retreat:

TP: For your retreat this weekend, is the Congressional Institute attending or sponsoring at all?

BOEHNER: They’ve always sponsored retreats for both Democrats and Republicans.

TP: Are any of their lobbyists attending this weekend?

BOEHNER: I don’t know. [...] I said I don’t know.

Watch it:

Boehner is wrong when he claims that the Congressional Institute sponsors Democratic retreats. According to the Politico, House Democratic retreats are not paid for by any special interest funds or the lobbyist-run Congressional Institute.

To fact-check Boehner’s sheepish reply that he simply didn’t know if lobbyists would be at the retreat, I visited the Renaissance hotel in Baltimore yesterday afternoon. Upon arriving at the front desk, I spoke to Patrick Deitz, a staff assistant for the Congressional Institute, who confirmed that Congressional Institute board member Michael Johnson was upstairs at the retreat, and that Dan Meyer, another board member, was on his way. Johnson, a lobbyist at the OB-C Group, touts himself as a “Republican heavyweight” whose firm represents the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, JP Morgan Chase, and the health insurance giant WellPoint. Meyer, a longtime Republican operative and chairman of the Congressional Institute, works for the Duberstein Group, where he represents BP, Goldman Sachs, HealthNet, and AHIP, the umbrella trade group for the health insurance industry. Meyer’s colleague at his lobbying firm, Steve Champlin, urged insurance industry executives last year to fight ruthlessy to kill health reform, proclaiming, don’t “give comfort to the enemy who is down.”

After informing Deitz and other Congressional Institute staffers that I work for ThinkProgress and wanted to interview some of the lobbyists in attendance, another staffer, named Mary, told me to leave the building or else I would be arrested. Mary, who refused to give her business card or last name, told Deitz not to tell me his last name either. During the course of the conversation with Congressional Institute staffers, a gaggle of men dressed in business attire discussed technology policy behind me. One of them had a name tag that read John Sampson; who according to his LinkedIn profile is the chief lobbyist for Microsoft.

Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that ThinkProgress will be able to attend, or even approach the building, for the lobbyist-organized GOP retreat. If we could, we might witness quite a reunion. Many of the lobbyists running the Congressional Institute are former top staffers to Newt Gingrich, who is addressing the gathering. Here is a picture of Congressional Institute board members Meyer and Arne Christenson — now a lobbyist for American Express — plotting strategy for Gingrich back in 1995.

Responding to the State of the Union, Boehner was quick to attack the administration for supposedly lacking transparency. But for a retreat planning public policy, Boehner apparently prefers to keep the corporate lobbyists involved behind closed doors — and even refuses to acknowledge their attendance.

Porn has negative effect on othersResearch from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, has found that pornography has a negative effects on individuals because it shows sex in unrealistic ways

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Quick Fact: Wallace claims Obama "participant ... in building up" trillion-dollar deficits over last yearPreviewing President Obama's State of the Union address on Fox Broadcasting Co., Chris Wallace asserted that Obama was "a participant in the last year in building up" "multi-trillion-dollar deficits." In fact, the FY 2009 deficit, which totaled $1.4 trillion, was already estimated to be $1.2 trillion when Obama came into office and "virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years" are due either to policies implemented under President Bush or to the recession, which began during Bush's tenure, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Read More

Memo to media: Obama's comments on Supreme Court decision in line with four justices' viewsTwo posts on National Review Online claimed that President Obama was untruthful when he said that the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC "open[ed] the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections." In fact, four justices of the Supreme Court agreed that the logic of the decision "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans" to make certain election-related expenditures. Read More

Fox & Friends' Kilmeade revises economic history to defend BushFox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade falsely claimed that when president Obama took office, he found "50 plus months of economic growth" and "between 5 and 7 percent unemployment." In fact, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in January 2009 and both employment and GDP had been falling for months prior to Obama's inauguration. Read More

Conservative media attack Obama's Supreme Court criticism as untruthfulConservative media are highlighting Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mouthing "not true" during the State of the Union address after President Obama said the court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC would "open the floodgates" for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend in U.S. elections to accuse Obama of "attacking" the First Amendment or not telling the truth. But, in fact, four of the Supreme Court's justices agreed in their opinion that the decision "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans" to make certain election-related expenditures. Read More

Quick Fact: "Fox News brain room" claims Obama statement on Supreme Court ruling is "wrong" On Fox News' America's Newsroom, co-host Martha MacCallum claimed that the "Fox News brain room" determined that President Obama's statement that a recent Supreme Court ruling would "open the floodgates" for foreign corporations to spend in U.S. elections was "wrong," adding that "the court specifically wrote that it was not overturning restrictions on foreign dollars." In fact, four of the Supreme Court's justices agreed in their opinion that the decision "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans" to make certain election-related expenditures. Read More

Quick Fact: NY Post falsely denies Obama cut taxes, saved jobs In a January 28 editorial, the New York Post asked if President Obama was in "Opposite Land" when he "claimed to have cut taxes and saved 'millions' of jobs." In fact, Obama's recovery act included $288 billion in tax relief, and economists estimate that the stimulus "raised employment" by as many as 2 million jobs through December 2009. Read More

Giuliani falsely claims Obama never said "war" in State of the Union In a Fox & Friends appearance, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed that President Obama "didn't mention the word 'war' " in his State of the Union address. In fact, Obama made at least seven mentions of the word "war," including calling for the U.S. military to "have the resources they need in war," adding that "we all have a responsibility to support them when they come home." Read More

Fox & Friends' post-State of the Union guest list is neither fair nor balanced In its post-State of the Union analysis on January 28, Fox & Friends hosted more than twice as many guests who were critical of President Obama's speech and agenda than those who were supportive, many of whom used inflammatory rhetoric or false claims to attack the president. Moreover, even one of Fox & Friends' few Democratic guests -- Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) -- was invited on to "take on his own party" and talk about how he's "fed up with the arrogance" of Democratic leaders. Read More

Sally Quinn's Washington You cannot caricature Sally Quinn. Don't even try. It simply can't be done. No matter how hard you try to exaggerate her preening self-regard and utter frivolity, she comes right along and shows herself to be worse than you could possibly imagine. Read More

Quick Fact: Limbaugh is latest media conservative to accuse Obama of ignorance or "lying" about Supreme Court rulingOn his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said that President Obama "didn't know what he was talking about or he was just out-and-out lying" when he said during the State of the Union address that the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC would "open the floodgates" for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend in U.S. elections. In fact, four of the Supreme Court's justices agreed in their opinion that the decision "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans" to make certain election-related expenditures. Read More

Breitbart brings ACORN videos lie to MSNBCInterviewed on MSNBC, Andrew Breitbart falsely claimed that the ACORN videos created by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles "clearly show in every -- in almost every single office, the employees at ACORN helping aid and abet the establishment of an underage prostitution brothel." But in six of the eight heavily edited videos produced by O'Keefe and Giles and distributed by Breitbart, either the activists did not clearly tell the ACORN employees that they were planning to engage in child prostitution; or the ACORN employees refused to help them or apparently deliberately misled them; or ACORN employees contacted the police following their visit Read More

Unhinged Beck lashes out in response to Obama's SOTU with attacks, conspiracy theoriesResponding to President Obama's January 27 State of the Union speech on his radio show the following day, Glenn Beck offered a series of harsh and bizarre comments, ranging from ad hominem attacks on Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Vice President Joe Biden to baseless conspiracy theories. Beck claimed that Obama detailed his "enemies' list" during the speech -- a list he compared to similar lists from "radicals" including Lenin and Stalin -- and warned his audience that we may be witnessing "the beginning" of a "dictorial [sic] kind of state" and that Obama will "pick us off to send you a message." Read More

Paragons of fiscal discipline, every Senate Republican today voted against reestablishing "pay-as-you-go" budgeting rules that mandate that any new spending must be paid for. The rule passed on a 60-40 party line vote.

Due to conflicting advice on whether Congresswoman Bachmann’s participation in the upcoming Tea Party Nation Convention would be in line with the Committee on Standards, Congresswoman Bachmann has decided not to participate in the event. There is uncertainty about how any proceeds from the event may be used, and we must err on the side of caution. Some will want to portray her withdrawal as a repudiation of the Tea Party Movement, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Congresswoman Bachmann remains encouraged by all Americans, regardless of political party, who are concerned about this nation’s future and dwindling prosperity, and continues to be inspired their passion.

Last week, “all five of the [Supreme] Court’s conservatives joined together…to invalidate a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate money in federal elections,” a move that Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said “opens the floodgates for the purchases and sale of the law” by big corporations. While progressives were outraged by the court’s judicial activism, many Republican politicians applauded the decision, with RNC Chairman Michael Steele even calling the ruling nothing more than “an affirmation of the constitutional rights provided to Americans under the first amendment.”

The progressive PR firm Murray Hill Inc. has announced that it plans to satirically run for Congress in the Republican primary in Maryland’s 8th congressional district to protest the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision. A press release on its website says that the company wants to “eliminate the middle man” and run for Congress directly, rather than influencing it with corporate dollars:

“Until now,” Murray Hill Inc. said in a statement, “corporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence peddling to achieve their goals in Washington. But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.”

“The strength of America,” Murray Hill Inc. says, “is in the boardrooms, country clubs and Lear jets of America’s great corporations. We’re saying to Wal-Mart, AIG and Pfizer, if not you, who? If not now, when?” [...]

Campaign Manager William Klein promises an aggressive, historic campaign that “puts people second” or even third. “The business of America is business, as we all know,” Klein says. “But now, it’s the business of democracy too.” Klein plans to use automated robo-calls, “Astroturf” lobbying and computer-generated avatars to get out the vote.

Murray Hill Inc. released its first campaign video Monday. A narrator in the video explains, “The way we see it, corporate America has been the driving force behind Congress for years. But now it’s time we got behind the wheel ourselves.” Watch it:

Update Radio host Thom Hartmann interviewed Murray Hill Inc's spokesman Eric Hansel yesterday on his radio show. Hansel explained to Hartmann that his company chose to run in the Republican primary because the GOP is more sympathetic to corporations. Watch it:

In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama described the dire state of affairs he faced as he entered office a year ago. “One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by a severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt,” said Obama.

Conservatives, who often complain that Obama blames former President George W. Bush too much, did not appreciate Obama’s recitation of the facts. “The blaming of the past administration is pathetically unpresidential,” blogged National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez last night. On Fox News this morning, Brian Kilmeade asked former Bush adviser Karl Rove if it’s “good politics” to “bring up your predecessor and talk about your first year in office while looking back at his last year in office?” “No, I think it makes you look weak,” replied Rove. Watch it:

By Rove’s logic, conservative icon Ronald Reagan and his former boss George W. Bush were also “weak.” As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz noted last night, Reagan “devoted significant portions” of his 1982 State of the Union “to attacking President Carter’s administration for ‘the situation at this time last year’”:

To understand the State of the Union, we must look not only at where we are and where we’re going but where we’ve been. The situation at this time last year was truly ominous. [...]

First, we must understand what’s happening at the moment to the economy. Our current problems are not the product of the recovery program that’s only just now getting under way, as some would have you believe; they are the inheritance of decades of tax and tax, and spend and spend. [...]

The only alternative being offered to this economic program is a return to the policies that gave us a trillion-dollar debt, runaway inflation, runaway interest rates and unemployment.

Though it wasn’t technically a State of the Union address, when former President Bush first addressed a joint session of Congress in February 2001, he too cast aspersion on his predecessor’s legacy. “Last year, Government spending shot up 8 percent. That’s far more than our economy grew, far more than personal income grew, and far more than the rate of inflation,” said Bush. “We must take a different path.”

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Media ignore Obama's accomplishments to claim he has "little to show for '09"In the weeks approaching President Obama's first State of the Union address, some in the media have claimed that Obama has lacked accomplishments in his first year as president and thus, in the words of Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden, Obama has "little to show for '09." In fact, Obama's first year in office has been marked by a series of significant achievements, including creating jobs as a result of the economic stimulus, eliminating wasteful spending, increasing government transparency, and expanding federal health insurance programs to cover millions more children. Read More

Blaming Obama for current "fiscal reality," WSJ falsely suggests health care bill will increase deficit Ignoring Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates showing health care reform will reduce deficits, a Wall Street Journal editorial asserted that President Obama should "[d]rop the health-care bill" if Democrats "really are serious" about fiscal responsibility. The editorial further attributed all of the fiscal year 2009 spending to Obama, but the increases in spending and the deficit also reflect the impact of policies enacted under former President Bush. Read More

WSJ falsely claims Romer's research showed "superiority" of tax cuts over spending for stimulus A Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that "current White House chief economist Christina Romer has done economic research showing the superiority of tax cutting over spending as fiscal stimulus," presumably referring to a March 2007 paper by Christina and David Romer, who found that "tax changes have very large effects on output." However, contrary to the Journal's claim, the Romers' paper did not compare the impact of tax changes on output to the impact of spending. Read More

Myths and falsehoods about the deficitIn recent months, media figures have advanced a litany of false and dubious claims regarding deficits and public debt. In addition to promoting the false narrative that portrays Republicans as responsible budget stewards and Democrats as fiscally reckless, these claims advance the argument that the administration should cut spending and focus on balancing the budget in the short term, a position rejected by numerous economists who advocate for continued stimulus spending. Read More

REPORT: After obsessive coverage of O'Keefe's video, Fox largely ignored his arrestFox News' January 26 evening programming largely ignored conservative activist James O'Keefe's arrest for his alleged role in a plot to attempt to tamper with the telephone system at Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) New Orleans office, dedicating 4 minutes and 34 seconds to the story, with Fox News' three top-rated programs for 2009 not mentioning O'Keefe's arrest. By contrast, Fox News devoted more than one hour on the evening of September 10, 2009, to discussing video footage of O'Keefe and conservative activist Hannah Giles, who was posing as a prostitute while asking for assistance from employees at an ACORN office. Read More

Fox & Friends priorities: Half-court basket over O'Keefe arrest Although it repeatedly promoted the undercover ACORN videos made by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, on January 27, Fox & Friends devoted just one brief segment to his recent arrest. By contrast, Fox & Friends repeatedly discussed a blindfolded half-court basketball shot, including a live interview with the coach who made the shot. Read More

Big Falsehoods: A guide to Andrew Breitbart's lies, smears, and distortions Andrew Breitbart's "Big" websites -- Big Hollywood, Big Government, and Big Journalism -- as well as his breitbart.tv website, have in recent months laid claim to many "exclusives," touting controversial and sensationalist storylines that have been picked up by other conservative media outlets, from Fox News on down. However, a closer examination reveals that many of Breitbart's "scoops" have been based on speculation, gross distortions, and outright falsehoods. Read More

Right-wing media forward conspiracy theory that NASA, NOAA manipulate climate dataInvestor's Business Daily and American Thinker are forwarding claims made by meteorologist Joseph D'Aleo and computer programmer Michael Smith that the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have "cherry-picked" the locations of weather observation stations in order to bias their temperature records in favor of warmer temperatures and thus produce data that supports the existence of global climate change. But climate experts have stated that Smith and D'Aleo's claims are flawed and based on an inaccurate understanding of how global temperature data is calculated and compiled. Read More

O'Keefe made numerous appearances on Fox News programs to promote ACORN videos and defend his tacticsFollowing conservative activist James O'Keefe's arrest for allegedly participating in an attempt to interfere with the telephone system at the New Orleans offices of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Media Matters for America review found that O'Keefe previously appeared at least seven times on Fox News and other Fox networks to promote videos he recorded of ACORN workers. During these appearances, O'Keefe said he was "willing to serve prison time" for potentially violating Maryland's two-party recording law, and asserted that he was "doing creative investigative journalism." Read More

O'Keefe and his cohorts' record of dishonestyOn January 25, conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe -- best known for his secretly recorded, heavily edited videos of his interactions with ACORN employees while supposedly dressed as a pimp -- was arrested by the FBI for his role in an alleged plot to tamper with the telephone system in Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. In response, Media Matters for America has reviewed the false statements, misrepresentations, and unethical tactics that O'Keefe, his partner Hannah Giles, his employer Andrew Breitbart, and the right-wing media have utilized in their attacks on ACORN. Read More

Right-wing media respond to O'Keefe's arrestMedia Matters for America has compiled a list of right-wing media figures' reactions to James O'Keefe's January 25 arrest by the FBI for his role in an alleged attempt to tamper with the phone systems at Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) New Orleans office. Those comments run the gamut from Michelle Malkin's statement that the reported details are "damning" and her recommendations to young conservative aspiring journalists not to "get carried away" or "become what you are targeting" to Patrick Frey's statement, "I'm sticking out my neck and declaring that I think this will prove to be a big nothing." Read More

Media conservatives call Obama "arrogant" in assessing State of the Union addressIn comments before and during President Obama's first State of the Union address, several media conservatives have accused him of being arrogant. Fox Business Networks' John Stossel said that he wanted Obama to apologize for being arrogant during his speech and John Hood stated on National Review's The Corner blog that Obama's "cadence and rhythm" "come across as flippant and arrogant." Read More

Media ignore Obama's accomplishments to claim he has "little to show for '09"In the weeks approaching President Obama's first State of the Union address, some in the media have claimed that Obama has lacked accomplishments in his first year as president and thus, in the words of Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden, Obama has "little to show for '09." In fact, Obama's first year in office has been marked by a series of significant achievements, including creating jobs as a result of the economic stimulus, eliminating wasteful spending, increasing government transparency, and expanding federal health insurance programs to cover millions more children. Read More

Blaming Obama for current "fiscal reality," WSJ falsely suggests health care bill will increase deficit Ignoring Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates showing health care reform will reduce deficits, a Wall Street Journal editorial asserted that President Obama should "[d]rop the health-care bill" if Democrats "really are serious" about fiscal responsibility. The editorial further attributed all of the fiscal year 2009 spending to Obama, but the increases in spending and the deficit also reflect the impact of policies enacted under former President Bush. Read More

WSJ falsely claims Romer's research showed "superiority" of tax cuts over spending for stimulus A Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that "current White House chief economist Christina Romer has done economic research showing the superiority of tax cutting over spending as fiscal stimulus," presumably referring to a March 2007 paper by Christina and David Romer, who found that "tax changes have very large effects on output." However, contrary to the Journal's claim, the Romers' paper did not compare the impact of tax changes on output to the impact of spending. Read More

Myths and falsehoods about the deficitIn recent months, media figures have advanced a litany of false and dubious claims regarding deficits and public debt. In addition to promoting the false narrative that portrays Republicans as responsible budget stewards and Democrats as fiscally reckless, these claims advance the argument that the administration should cut spending and focus on balancing the budget in the short term, a position rejected by numerous economists who advocate for continued stimulus spending. Read More

REPORT: After obsessive coverage of O'Keefe's video, Fox largely ignored his arrestFox News' January 26 evening programming largely ignored conservative activist James O'Keefe's arrest for his alleged role in a plot to attempt to tamper with the telephone system at Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) New Orleans office, dedicating 4 minutes and 34 seconds to the story, with Fox News' three top-rated programs for 2009 not mentioning O'Keefe's arrest. By contrast, Fox News devoted more than one hour on the evening of September 10, 2009, to discussing video footage of O'Keefe and conservative activist Hannah Giles, who was posing as a prostitute while asking for assistance from employees at an ACORN office. Read More

Fox & Friends priorities: Half-court basket over O'Keefe arrest Although it repeatedly promoted the undercover ACORN videos made by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, on January 27, Fox & Friends devoted just one brief segment to his recent arrest. By contrast, Fox & Friends repeatedly discussed a blindfolded half-court basketball shot, including a live interview with the coach who made the shot. Read More

Big Falsehoods: A guide to Andrew Breitbart's lies, smears, and distortions Andrew Breitbart's "Big" websites -- Big Hollywood, Big Government, and Big Journalism -- as well as his breitbart.tv website, have in recent months laid claim to many "exclusives," touting controversial and sensationalist storylines that have been picked up by other conservative media outlets, from Fox News on down. However, a closer examination reveals that many of Breitbart's "scoops" have been based on speculation, gross distortions, and outright falsehoods. Read More

Right-wing media forward conspiracy theory that NASA, NOAA manipulate climate dataInvestor's Business Daily and American Thinker are forwarding claims made by meteorologist Joseph D'Aleo and computer programmer Michael Smith that the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have "cherry-picked" the locations of weather observation stations in order to bias their temperature records in favor of warmer temperatures and thus produce data that supports the existence of global climate change. But climate experts have stated that Smith and D'Aleo's claims are flawed and based on an inaccurate understanding of how global temperature data is calculated and compiled. Read More

O'Keefe made numerous appearances on Fox News programs to promote ACORN videos and defend his tacticsFollowing conservative activist James O'Keefe's arrest for allegedly participating in an attempt to interfere with the telephone system at the New Orleans offices of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Media Matters for America review found that O'Keefe previously appeared at least seven times on Fox News and other Fox networks to promote videos he recorded of ACORN workers. During these appearances, O'Keefe said he was "willing to serve prison time" for potentially violating Maryland's two-party recording law, and asserted that he was "doing creative investigative journalism." Read More

O'Keefe and his cohorts' record of dishonestyOn January 25, conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe -- best known for his secretly recorded, heavily edited videos of his interactions with ACORN employees while supposedly dressed as a pimp -- was arrested by the FBI for his role in an alleged plot to tamper with the telephone system in Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. In response, Media Matters for America has reviewed the false statements, misrepresentations, and unethical tactics that O'Keefe, his partner Hannah Giles, his employer Andrew Breitbart, and the right-wing media have utilized in their attacks on ACORN. Read More

Right-wing media respond to O'Keefe's arrestMedia Matters for America has compiled a list of right-wing media figures' reactions to James O'Keefe's January 25 arrest by the FBI for his role in an alleged attempt to tamper with the phone systems at Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) New Orleans office. Those comments run the gamut from Michelle Malkin's statement that the reported details are "damning" and her recommendations to young conservative aspiring journalists not to "get carried away" or "become what you are targeting" to Patrick Frey's statement, "I'm sticking out my neck and declaring that I think this will prove to be a big nothing." Read More

Media conservatives call Obama "arrogant" in assessing State of the Union addressIn comments before and during President Obama's first State of the Union address, several media conservatives have accused him of being arrogant. Fox Business Networks' John Stossel said that he wanted Obama to apologize for being arrogant during his speech and John Hood stated on National Review's The Corner blog that Obama's "cadence and rhythm" "come across as flippant and arrogant." Read More

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and the author of the seminal A People's History of the United States, died today at the age of 87 of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. He was in a swimming pool doing laps and was spotted immediately by lifeguards but died instantly.

Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible. As he wrote in his autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."

Watch these videos to get a sense of what we've lost.

On three holy wars, from 2008:

On human nature and aggression, from 2004:

On civil disobedience, from 2002:

And read this report from Atlanta from the August 6, 1960 issue of The Nation for a sense of the struggles that animated the young Zinn.

On Monday, conservative activist James O’Keefe and three others were arrested by the FBI and “charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.” The gang was caught in what appeared to be an attempt wiretap Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) office in New Orleans. O’Keefe, who had been trained by several well-funded conservative institutes and had been working for right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart, gained notoriety for dressing up as a pimp and videotaping ACORN staffers offering to help the supposed pimp and his prostitutes secure funding for a brothel.

Last October, 31 House Republicans introduced a congressional resolution honoring O’Keefe for his efforts against ACORN. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), one of the resolution’s cosponsors, has fought to ban funding to an ACORN affiliate and has been one of O’Keefe’s most vocal fans. At a press conference, ThinkProgress asked King if he would withdraw his support for the resolution, given news of O’Keefe’s arrest. But King dodged the question repeatedly, at one point defending O’Keefe, then later suggesting his resolution praising the conservative activist is frivolous compared to what Congress should be debating right now. At one point, the Iowa congressman floated the possibility of a conspiracy against O’Keefe, noting, “It seems really convenient that this would happen now”:

TP: Several of you, and I think some of your colleagues signed onto a resolution honoring James O’Keefe, the conservative activist who was in the news recently because he was caught trying to wiretap Sen. Landreu’s office.

KING: you are innocent until proven guilty and it’s off topic so I won’t– [...] You know, I think that — I wanted to dig into that and find out some more details that I could pick up. Some of the behind the scenes information, because it seems really convenient that this would happen now. [...]

TP: Congressman King, I’m just trying to figure this out. You pushed an effort to defund ACORN, but at the same time you are saying James O’Keefe is innocent until proven guilty. You’ve already passed judgement on ACORN without a trial.

KING: We pass judgment all the time [...] He has been picked up and the allegations are that he committed an act. Now he is innocent until proven guilty. ACORN needs to be investigated.

TP: And if Pelosi forced a vote on the O’Keefe resolution would you vote on it.

KING: I’d want to see the language. Why would we focus on this?

Watch the video produced by Victor Zapanta:

It’s odd that King isn’t aware of the O’Keefe resolution’s language seeing that he cosponsored it. Also, while downplaying O’Keefe’s purported attempt to wiretap Landrieu, King brushed off the alleged crime as simply an “act.” If O’Keefe was attempting to wiretap the Senator — a suspicion reported in the press given the fact his cohorts were caught tampering with phones while posing as telephone company employees — he would be accessing private conversations that might deal with Landrieu’s sensitive work on the Homeland Security Committee, which deals with matters of terrorism and national security.

As it turns out, retired CIA agent John Kiriakou has an active imagination, basically.

According to a piece by veteran intelligence reporter Jeff Stein, Kiriakou "basically made up" details about the waterboarding of al Qaeda agent Abu Zubaydah.

Arguing that waterboarding — or simulated drowning — is actually effective in forcing prisoners to share secret information, Kiriakou told ABC News’ Nightline in April, “The next day [after his first time being waterboarded], he told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate.”

“From that day on, he answered every question,” he said, according to ABC. “The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks.”

Salt Lake County Republicans are scrambling to line up a new keynote fundraising speaker after the arrest Tuesday of their scheduled first choice, filmmaker James O'Keefe, on charges of attempting to tamper with the phone system of a U.S. Senator.

"The allegations and arrest today certainly changes our plans," county GOP Chairman Thomas Wright said in a telephone interview with The Tribune . "We'll be announcing a new speaker shortly."

As of Tuesday night, the party's Web site, slcogop.com, still advertised O'Keefe as the guest speaker for the party's Feb. 4 Lincoln Day Dinner. His topic was to be "his national exposé of ACORN's unethical behavior, his changes in Congress and (how he will) inspire our Party's passion for a grassroots comeback."

The fundraising announcement said donations of from $4,000 to $7,500 would entitle contributing groups to have access to elected Republican officials and the guest speaker at a VIP reception. Wright said the web site and other promotions would be altered soon to reflect a change. "We're disappointed," he said of O'Keefe's arrest on felony charges. "He doesn't necessarily represent the Republican Party.".........